John List is best known for pioneering the use of field experiments in economics. His work has stimulated a new area of study that explores economic behavior in naturally occurring environments with controlled experimental methods. He is the author of numerous articles on myriad subjects, including the economic aspects of environmental regulation; prospect theory; marketplace effects on corporate and government policy decisions; and field experimental work on charitable fundraising.

Before accepting a position in the economics department at the University of Chicago, List was a professor at the University of Maryland, where he directed the Joint Global Change Research Institute. He was also a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 2002-03, where he worked on multinational market institutions to address climate change, the Clear Skies Act, benefit-cost guidelines, and softwood lumber trade disputes between the United States and Canada. He also is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. He also edits the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and Environmental and Resource Economics.